


In the Trenches

by YouCantKeepMeDown



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - War, Existential Crisis, Gen, Smoking, The Futility of War, Trench Warfare, Uniforms, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-20
Updated: 2017-12-20
Packaged: 2019-02-17 07:34:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13072173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YouCantKeepMeDown/pseuds/YouCantKeepMeDown
Summary: Wherever things are worst the Archangel special forces are called in.





	In the Trenches

**Author's Note:**

> Two very different conversations I had recently led to this. One was about how Raphael is the archangel that lost faith. The other was about how good fem!Raphael would look in a uniform. Both of those conversations have their value of course ;-)
> 
> This was written for the free space of my SPN AU and Trope Bingo card.
> 
> Also, thanks to my beta reader coplins, who stayed up longer to read this.

She’s like an island of calm in a world that’s gone to shit, Adam thinks. He watches her from where he sits on a crate in the trenches, utterly exhausted from nights of barely any sleep and days of fighting for his life.

She’s leaning against the side of the trench, cigarette between her lips, exhaling smoke slowly through her nose. Her hair is pulled back in a knot and her dark skin and her uniform are not caked with dirt like everybody else’s. She’s just arrived here, Archangel special forces, rank of a captain by the pins on her collar. Benny told him the archangels go wherever the shit is really bad and turn the battle around. However four people are going to manage that.

Her name is Raphael, Adam got that from Cole. She takes another drag from her cigarette, and turns to him, looking at him through narrowed eyes. “If you got to say something, say it.” Her voice is a bit rough from the smoke, or maybe it’s always like that.

“Sorry,” Adam mumbles and looks away.

“Don’t give me that. I’m bored anyway. Ask.”

That makes Adam look at her again. “You’re bored?” he asks in disbelief. “You’re about to go out there and face who knows how many enemies!”

She quirks an eyebrow up. “So?”

“You could die!”

“So?” One last drag, then she flips the cigarette away, puts it out with the heel of her boot.

“You’re not afraid at all?” Adam asks.

She shrugs. “Oh, sure I am. Knowing that you might die is the best part of fighting, actually. Makes you feel alive.”

When Adam just stares at her, she laughs. “Why do you fight?”

The answer to that comes automatically. “For our beloved Emperor!”

The eyebrow again. “Ever seen him?”

“No, but –”

“No one has in years,” she interrupts him. “I think he’s dead. I think the only reason we still fight is that no one cares enough to stop it.”

That can’t be. Adam opens his mouth to protest, but before any sound comes out, a man jumps into the trench, startling him. He’s small, floppy hair, golden eyes, same uniform as Raphael, same amount of pins. Between his lips is the stick of a lollipop, even though the sweet itself seems to be long gone. “Scaring the infantry again, Raphael?” He sounds way too cheerful.

She just shrugs. “Are we good to go?”

“We are. Luci is getting impatient already. You know how he is.”

Raphael pushes herself off the wall, nods to Adam, and then they’re gone just as they came.

“I heard she was a healer before the war started,” Cole whispers to Adam.

Adam thinks something must’ve gone terribly wrong since then.

* * *

Adam doesn’t see much of the fight. Infantry is ordered to stand down and not engage, no matter what happens. But he sees the flashes of light, the explosions, and he hears the gunfire. And he hears the screams. He’s pretty numb to a lot of suffering by now, but those screams will stay with him forever, he’s sure of that.

After a while, the enemy lines vanish behind a cloud of dust.

It takes half a day until silences settles over the battlefield. Adam scrambles up from where he he’d been trying to sleep – not very successfully – and peers over the edge of the trench. The dust is hanging in the air, obscuring everything. But there’s movement in there. He strains his eyes and tries to see.

It’s not long until four figures emerge from the cloud. He recognizes Raphael first. There’s dust on her skin and her uniform now, but also blood. Next to her is a blond man, whose arms look like he dunked them in red, blood splattered on his face, too. There’s the small one, lollipop stick still between his lips, that are drawn into a manic grin. And the last one has dark hair and a face like one of those old statues, completely unmoving. He’s the cleanest of them, but just like with the others there’s danger in the way he moves.

They walk towards the trench with no hurry, stop at the edge of it. Raphael digs for a cigarette and lights it, while the man with the dark hair speaks. “You can advance now. There are just a few pockets of them left. You should be able to clean them out yourself.”

“Yes, sir! Thank you, sir!” Cole gives a salute and Adam does so too.

When they advance half an hour later, Adam is sure of two things: What he sees there will stay with him just like the screams. And whatever he’s seen in Raphael, it hadn’t been calm.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the only thing I'll write in this verse.


End file.
